Armies of tiny mountain pine beetles are eating their way through the region’s vast forests of stately conifers, and the damage is monumental. NBC’s Tom Brokaw reports.

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>>>being here to cover these olympics has given us a chance to get to know this part of the world a little better. that includes getting a closer look at
british columbia
's great outdoors and a big environmental problem in the making involving trees that some are now calling an
endangered species
. we get the story tonight from
tom brokaw
.

>>reporter: this is a portrait of an environmental calamity. the evergreens of
british columbia
, now so many are a rust brown. these towering trees are under attack from an army of tiny
mountain pine
beetles, each no bigger than a grain of rice. the damage is monumental.

>>the outbreak is now covering over 15 million hectares, or about 57,000
square miles
.

>>once the populations build and there's a lot of them, they can basically attack living trees with 999 of their closest friends.

>>reporter: the beetles damage the trees' ability to nourish itself.

>>parents go in under a bark flake.

>>reporter: they lay their eggs beneath the outer layer of the bark. when the eggs hatch, the larvae burrow into the tree, cutting off the tree's nutrient supply and leaving a fungus, staining the wood blue.

>>the worst of the outbreak --

>>reporter: and all this adds to an even larger problem. the journal "nature" says these
dead trees
are now contributing to
global warming
because they're giving off carbon, not taking it in.

>>we estimate that the impact of the beetle is equivalent to roughly 1 billion tons of
carbon dioxide
.

>>we are in a desperate situation.

>>reporter: on the front lines are
british columbia
's first nation communities. they rely on the forest for food, tourism, logging, and shelter. but they say
canada
's government is not doing enough to stop the beetle infestation.

>>we are fighting to be able to get $135 million to create a
fire break
around 103 aboriginal communities.

>>reporter: to keep the
dead trees
from becoming a
fire hazard
, the
local government
is encouraging builders to use beet beetle-infested wood.

>>all this rippled roof area you see, it all comes from
pine beetle
-infested forests.

>>reporter: nearly six acres of beetle-infested wood were used to create this spectacular 700-foot-long roof in the ice oval. you can fit four 747s in here
wing tip
to
wing tip
. it is an imaginative use of the da damaged trees. but meanwhile, the beetles continue their relentless attack on one of
canada
's glories, its vast forest of stately conifers.
tom brokaw
, nbc news, vancouver.